 I want to help you figure out how to respond when your marketing budget is cut. Welcome to the We Are Slam Show where you'll learn marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly. I'm the co-founder and chief strategist here at Slam Agency. We're a full-service digital marketing agency designed to help you captivate, motivate, and inspire people to action through advertising. And today, I want to help you figure out how to respond when your marketing budget is cut. Now, according to Gartner, over 65% of marketing leaders say that their marketing budgets have been cut this year. Now, for some, that might mean advertising. For others, that might mean people, right? And if you're in that boat, if you've come to our show today and you've sought us out on Google or you're a regular listener or viewer and your marketing budget has been cut, then that's a pretty drastic situation. And number one, the good news is because you're dealing with the situation, you haven't been cut. So you have some choices that you need to make. And really, this show is all about how not to necessarily react, but how to respond when this happens. As we know, a reaction is something that is instant, not very well thought out. A response is more strategic. And so today, I want to help you respond to this situation, help you get through it, help you have some clarity and some strategic vision going forward. Now, I'm going to give you three steps to help you get through and respond during this time, knowing that you didn't make this decision, but you're the one who has to see it through. So how can you do more with less? Step one, the first thing I want you to do before you do anything is I want you to understand that when marketing budgets are cut, generally, that's reactionary, not strategic. When marketing budget cuts are reactionary rather than strategic, that they really do hurt the business. They really do hurt your long term objectives, your long term goals. And it really makes it difficult to get out of the situation that we're in. Of course, we're in a recession, we're in a time period where marketing budgets are being cut. And because of that, there presents a lot of opportunities. As a matter of fact, over the last 100 years, we've had, we've had more than a handful of recessions and the data over the last 100 years, over the last century, the data shows that when businesses either maintain or increase marketing budgets, that they see massive benefits during times like these. On the flip side of that coin, when marketing budgets are reduced, sales always suffer. So I know you know this as a marketing professional, but I just want to reiterate this, that when advertising decreases, sales decreases well. And the data also shows that when you increase or maintain your marketing and advertising spend, that these benefits not only happen, you know, in the here and now, but they persist for several years after the recession. Now, of course, you already know this, that when advertising increases strategically, that sales follow. And when advertising is decreased, sales decrease. But I just had to remind you to just take a step back, take a deep breath and realize that if you just start cutting, because you have to, or you just start cutting because it's the thing to do, that that's going to come back and it's going to actually be detrimental to your bottom line. Now, step two is for those of you who you just don't have a choice and you're faced with this, like I said, you didn't make this decision, but you have to carry it out. You know, it's come from up here. And it's your CEO or your CFO, as you said, you know, the money's not there. You have to cut back on marketing and advertising. And, you know, you need to lay some people off and you need to make some tough decisions. So what do you do then? Step two really is to take a long hard look at what's working and what's not working and where can you get the most bang for your buck? Okay, so obviously, you know, some of the easy targets are television and radio and out of home advert. These are easy targets. And maybe, you know, this is an opportunity for you to look at, okay, how can I get more into digital targeting, whether it be over the top or, you know, digital audio or something like this, or, you know, Facebook, Google AdWords, like how can I get more strategic in my digital approach? How can I double down on digital? And if you're thinking about doubling down on digital, which really is, you know, probably the solution in terms of advertising, because the advantage here with digital is it allows you to maintain your reach. It allows you to do more with less, right? You can not only maintain, but do more with less. And, you know, with some brands stepping out of digital right now, stepping out of Facebook and, you know, not spending there, what that's going to allow you to do is to step in and to connect with your audiences at a price that makes sense. Because if they were all there, it would be very difficult for smaller brands, smaller businesses, to be able to afford, to be able to maintain that spend on a platform like Facebook, because it was already getting nearly overpriced. And if that's the case, then it makes it difficult for smaller businesses to jump in if you haven't jumped in before. But if you're there, you have the history, double down on that, invest in that digital experience and that digital platform, that digital advertising, and you'll see the return. When we're talking about digital, though, it's more than just advertising. Matter of fact, I want you to think about content as well, because you can, when you're doubling down on digital, you can double down on content. I want you to rethink and repurpose your content. You know, you've invested in content and there's a lot of content out there. You know, there's a lot you can do with your existing content. Not only can you redistribute, but you can remix, okay? Rethink the way that you're working through this. Remix this content. Take four or five blog posts and create an e-book. Or, you know, go through and look at your blog list and see what types of topics are getting the most traffic and then say, okay, what sort of e-books or offers can I put on these blogs? You know, if you're getting a ton of traffic on a blog, make sure there's a CTA there. Make sure there's a call to action there. Make sure there's something that you want your reader to do. And it's not just the generic, you know, sign up for the newsletter or download this e-book in, you know, in the sidebar or something like that. Make sure it's specific to the article. Go back in and see where people are spending time on that article and put that CTA right then and there in the article. Make sure that happens. And really just to understand that when it comes to content, you know, content costs money to produce content. And because of this, you're going to begin to see open spaces. You're going to begin to see open markets in the sense that, you know, there's space, there's room for you and for your voice, for your brand's voice. And there might be new spaces that you can enter as a result of continuing to produce, continuing to distribute content because this is one place where a lot of people are going to back out. And the reason they back out is because the CEO is like, you know, where is, where are the sales? Where are the sales coming from this content? And as marketing professional, you know that a lot of times content, it's top of the funnel. It's middle of the funnel. And so those sales aren't immediate, right? And because they're not immediate, your CEO might not understand that, you know, these sales take time. If they don't understand the flywheel and the way that, you know, inbound marketing works, then you're going to have a tough time during the recession explaining to this person the value of inbound marketing. If they're not a believer, then you're not going to make them a believer now. And because of that, you're going to see a lot of brands begin to go silent when it comes to content. And so it opens up spaces for you. If you continue to fight the good fight, what you'll see is that you have room for your brand, for your voice, and you'll generate a lot of new opportunities, a lot of new leads from the content that you're continuing to produce, and that you're distributing, that you're remixing, that you're putting out there. Remember, content 101 is, it's a consistent thing. You have to be consistent when it comes to content marketing. The other thing I want you to think about when it comes to doubling down on what works, i.e. digital, right? Doing more with less, i.e. digital. I don't want you to sacrifice long-term sales and revenue, long-term brand growth for short term. What does this mean? Don't throw all your money in the bottom of the funnel and neglect the top of the funnel. We know that AdWords works. We know that as a foundation, you need to put money in AdWords because these are now buyers. These are the people at the bottom of the funnel that they're ready to buy now. This is your top 3%. They've come here to your site, and now they're ready to make a purchase. And generally, you just need to help them make that purchase. You need to make it easy. The user experience needs to be simple. I need to know where to find what I'm looking for. And I don't need any complications when it comes to checking out or to taking that next step or to completing that call to action. But when it comes to the top of the funnel, if you just put all your money into the bottom of the funnel, which is great, that's a foundational aspect. But don't neglect the top of the funnel because the top of the funnel is your long-term growth. If you neglect the top of the funnel, then what's going to happen two, three months down the road, what you're going to see is it's just going to dry up. It's going to dry up because you haven't put the time and the effort into maintaining that content marketing. And when I think about maintaining, I'm really, I'm thinking about maintaining that balance and understanding the buyer's journey, the buyer's journey, you know, from attention to interest to desire to action, understanding that they might not be aware of their problem. They might not be aware of your solution or of your product. And wherever they are, when you think about the Holy Grail of marketing, what's that Holy Grail? It's right person, right message, right time, right place. Wherever they are, whatever situation they're facing, whatever that pain point is, you need to be able to address them and find them in their time of need. And if you can do that and do that consistently, then you've got a pretty strong inbound marketing, strategic inbound marketing game. And that's what works. And that's what it's going to take to not only, you know, get short-term results, but to see the long-term growth. And step three is for those of you who, you know, come back to the office, you're looking around the department, and there just aren't as many people there as there were. I mean, your team has been cut, right? Not only your marketing budget, but your team has been cut. I mean, think about it. You have, you know, a marketing manager, a web developer, a graphic designer, a social media content marketing person. What are those salaries costs? I mean, that could be anywhere from, that could be $300,000 a year. Then you've got taxes and insurance. And then you have the applications, you know, the Adobe Photoshop and all the different things that are a monthly cost for marketing and for creative. And suddenly, you know, it's like, okay, we need to cut these things. And a lot of times, that means cutting people. And if you're faced with that type of situation where you've lost your team, your marketing director, your CMO, and you have lost your team, and you're looking for a solution, like, okay, I need to go to Upwork. I need to, you know, go to the talent agency and find somebody that can work short term on this project here and this project here. And I need to manage this and manage that I need to report to my CEO results. You have a vision, you have a strategy, but executing it trying to manage a team and outsource team. It's just not what you signed up for. And I understand that. And so step three really is to seriously consider outsourcing your marketing team. Now I know that a lot of us have experienced outsourcing individuals, right? We can we hire a copywriter here, a videographer here, you know, we have somebody doing social media here. And you know, that's that's one way to do it. It's a lot more time consuming a lot more things to manage when one person drops out, you have to hire somebody else or outsource, you know, that area and then teach them your processes and your systems. And it's just it's time consuming. And so when you go out and you outsource an entire marketing team, and we're talking about an agency like SLAM, you go out and outsource to an agency like SLAM, then you get all of these things all in one for the price of one or two employees. And so really, you're able to hire, you know, for that expertise, whether it be videography, copywriting, digital advertising strategy, social media, you're able to hire an entire team to come in and replace the team that you lost for the price of one or two employees. You're going to immediately eliminate, you know, all of your monthly application fees. And you're going to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the key here is to understand that it's impossible to, you know, find a marketing assistant quote unquote, that is a web developer, coder, graphic designer, copywriter, social media, you know, like that person doesn't exist. But those teams do exist. And so your priority is to figure out, you know, where are the teams that I can interview that I can trust that I can hire? Where are these teams? And how do I get in touch with them? And how can I engage them to, number one, see what I see and understand what I understand. But then execute on it to follow through on my vision and to do so with my budget. If you're facing a situation like this, then maybe, just maybe, SLAM agency is the outsourced marketing team that you're looking for. And, you know, we have built our agency, I've built this agency to be your marketing team. Okay, we have copywriting, digital advertising expertise, traditional advertising expertise, media buying, we have videography, graphic design, social media. When you hire SLAM as a marketing, as your marketing team, you're getting all of these things in one package. We're a full service digital marketing team for companies like yours. So if this is something that you have been giving some thought, then maybe now is the time to have a conversation. And I would love for you to visit us at slamagency.com, click the free consultation button and tell me that you're looking to, you're looking for a team, you're looking, you have a vision, you have a strategy and you need a team to execute on it. And that's where we come in. So go to slamagency.com, click the free consultation button and let's talk. Now, if this is your first time in a situation like this, I want you to know that you will get through this, we will get through this. The best is yet to come. And all of this noise, all of this confusion, all of these uncertain times are just that. It is what like we say here at SLAM, it is what it is. It's all good. This two-shell pass. And I appreciate you tuning in. If you know somebody that could get value out of a show like this out of this show, be sure to share it with them. And if you got value out of this show, please subscribe to the podcast, rate us, review us, leave a review. And if you can, leave us a comment in social media or on YouTube. I always enjoy seeing your comments and knowing who you are, those of you who are listening and tuning in. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and I will see you next week. Thanks for watching. If you like what you saw, subscribe and hit that bell. You'll be the first to be notified when new content goes live. After that, you can watch more videos from SLAM agency. We've picked something we think you'll love.